Before the 30th anniversary of Ayrton Senna's death (tomorrow for us at Formulacritica will be a special day with a tribute that will contain an exclusive interview with a man close to the Paulista champion), another sad moment for Formula One is remembered : the death of Roland Ratzenberger. A driver who had the dream of driving in the Grand Prix Circus; a desire that unfortunately ended too soon.
This is his story. Tenacity and determination that overcame the difficulties encountered in a long and unrewarding career.
Roland Ratzenberger: the beginnings
Roland Ratzenberger was born in Salzburg, Austria, on 4 July 1960. He discovered the world of motorsports at the age of 9 when his grandmother took him to attend a time trial near Salzburg. Having completed his studies, at the age of 18, he enrolled in Walter Lechner's sports driving school at the Salzburgring, a circuit near his hometown.
Roland Ratzenberger: his long apprenticeship in motorsport
In 1983 he made his debut with Formula Ford, in Germany, and in 1985 he won both the Austrian and Central European versions.
In 1986 he emigrated to England where he competed in numerous British and European categories, winning both in the Formula Ford 1600 and in the Formula Ford Festival.
He competes in both open wheel and covered wheel categories with less than attractive results. The only satisfactory result came in 1989: a 3rd place in the general classification in the British Formula 3000 in which he obtained a victory, 3 poles and 6 podiums.
He emigrated to the Far East, to Japan, where he made his debut in the Prototype Championship, obtaining a pole.
In the same year he also made his debut in the German covered wheel category, the DTM, in the team founded by his compatriot Helmut Marko.
Also in 1989 he competed for the first time in the 24 Hours of Le Mans, a race in which he would participate until 1993, with the Brun Motorsport/Alpha Racing Team and Toyota.
He returns to compete in Japan, in Formula 3000, in prototypes and in touring cars with unsatisfactory results. He then flies to the United States of America in search of glory. He competes in the IMSA GT Championship, covered wheel category, but does not achieve optimal results.
In 1991 he tried the World Sportscar Championship, the FIA world prototype championship, taking part in two races. It was not classified.
In 1993 he raced for the last time in the Japanese Formula 3000 in which, at the end of the sporting campaign, he obtained a podium. In the same year he began his last participation in the 24 Hours of Le Mans in which he finished in 5th place.
These numerous races, these countless trips around the world, had one and only purpose: to one day compete in Formula 1. At almost 33 years old it seemed that the dream was about to vanish. But the call came from Simtek, a young low-level team founded by Max Mosley and Nick Wirth in 1989.
![Roland Ratzenberge](https://www.formulacritica.it/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Roland-750x375.webp)
Roland Ratzenberger, the dream comes true: landing in Formula 1
At 33 years old, Roland Ratzenberger signed a one-off agreement (5 events) to compete in the 1994 Formula 1 World Championship. This agreement was also able to come about thanks to the generous sponsor given to the Austrian driver.
He made his debut with a car that was not at all competitive at the Brazilian Grand Prix, in Interlagos. He will fail the qualification and therefore will not take part in the race.
At the following Pacific Grand Prix, on the Okayama circuit in Japan, he managed to snatch the last available place (26th) to take part in the race.
On Sunday he was the last of the 11 participants to have managed to finish the grand prix. He arrived five laps behind winner Michael Schumacher in Benetton.
Ronald Ratzenberger, Imola: the tragic end
In Imola, at the San Marino Grand Prix, we find ourselves faced with one of the worst weekends in the history of F1.
On Friday, April 29, 1994, the Jordan of Brazilian Rubens Barrichello, at the Variante Bassa, went off the track and violently impacted the tire barriers. The pilot escaped with only a broken nasal septum and a bruised arm. Transported to hospital in Bologna, he will not take part in the rest of the weekend.
On Saturday, in the second qualifying session, when everything was going smoothly, Ratzenberger's Simtek went off the track at Acque Minerali and didn't stop in the pits to check if it had suffered any damage. The drivers decides to continue without encountering any problems. Ratzenberger, unfortunately, was unaware that his front wing had suffered damage in that outing.
After a spin at Tosa, on the next lap he tries to enter Villeneuve. The wing comes off and gets stuck under the car. The pilot is now a passenger inside the cockpit. The car is a crazed projectile that crashes with unprecedented violence into the nearby wall with a force equal to 500 g. A deceleration never achieved in Formula One.
The car bounces off the wall and ends its run before the next bend, the Tosa. The television images are chilling: they show Roland Ratzenberger's head hanging in an unnatural way and which does not follow the movements of the car.
![](https://www.formulacritica.it/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Ratzenberger-750x375.webp)
Transported by helicopter to the hospital in Bologna, his death was declared to have actually occurred before his arrival in the hospital.
The main causes of death are breakage of the bone at the base of the skull. This is the official reason reported by the doctors. There was also a severe contusion caused by the front tire penetrating the survival cell which also caused the rupture of the aorta.
He was the first driver to lose his life during a Formula One weekend since Elio De Angelis's fatal accident at Paul Ricard in 1986. The next day, returning to Imola 1994, another tragic story will unfold.
Only five drivers attended Roland Ratzenberger's funeral: David Brabham, Heinz-Harald Frentzen, Johnny Herbert and compatriots Karl Wendlinger and Gerhard Berger. The President of the FIA at the time, Max Mosley, did not go to Ayrton Senna's funeral, preferring to attend those of the Austrian driver.
After the tragic events in Imola, the GPDA, the pilots' union, was reformed. Michael Schumacher was elected as the first president and he immediately asked for greater safety for both the single-seaters and the circuits.
In 2003, it became mandatory to install the “HANS” safety system to avoid neck and skull breaks. A mechanism that has saved numerous lives to date.
30 years after his death, the non-profit organization "La Sfida del Cuore" will place a commemorative plaque with a photo of him with words in German at the Tosa curve where the Austrian driver's single-seater stopped and where a grandstand was dedicated to his name. “Er lebt für seinen trauma”. In Italian: “He lived for his dream.” The same words placed on his tombstone at the Maxglan cemetery in Salzburg, where a pilot who chased a dream rests.
Crediti foto: Scuderia Ferrari
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